Recycling plastic: an award-winning idea.

Projects that reuse plastic, clone proteins, and explore how children learn science garnered the top three prizes this week in Washington, D.C., at the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, sponsored by Westinghouse Electric Corp. in partnership with Science Service.

Forrest Newell Anderson, 18, of Helena (Mont.) H.S. won first place and a $40,000 scholarship for his 2-year engineering project designing and making furnaces that recycle plastic. His system can handle different types of polymers at once, so consumers would not have to separate their plastic garbage, he says. Moreover, the plastic decomposes into material that industry could use to make lubricants, for example. Anderson hopes to patent the technology

The judges awarded second place and a $30,000 scholarship to aspiring physician Jennifer Yu-Fe Lin, 17, of Hunter College H.S. in New York City for her cell-growth research. Lin cloned growth factor receptor-binding protein 2 (Grb2), which acts as a go-between for hormone messengers and cells, and discovered that it binds to human insulinlike growth factor 1 receptors. Such results improve understanding of the uncontrolled cell growth related to cancer, she says.

Third-place winner John Laurence Staub, 19, of Sisseton (S.D.) H.S. studied how third-graders learn science. "A lot of my classmates failed in science, so I wanted to know why," he says. Staub needed to do an experiment that made use of his small town's resources, which don't include expensive equipment, so he designed and helped teach two versions of a 4-week science curriculum. Both provided similar information, but one featured hands-on learning and the other more rote learning. His results "suggest hands-on is probably more useful," he says. He garnered a $20,000 scholarship.

Three students received $15,000 scholarships. Fourth-place winner Robert Christopher Sarvis, 17, of Thomas Jefferson H.S. for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., looked for mathematical patterns in a square lattice. Fifth-place winner Steven Daniel Sherman, 18, of Winona (Minn.) Senior H.S. studied aircraft wing tips' effects on fuel efficiency, Sixth place went to Flora Tartakovsky, 17, of Bronx (N.Y) H.S. of Science for her research on liver disease.

Four students won $10,000 scholarships: Janos Zahajszky, 17, of Canton (Mass.) H.S.; Jennifer Melissa Kalish, 17, of Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore; Margaret Chalmers Bothner, 17, of Falmouth (Mass.) H.S.; and Jamel Lamonte Oeser-Sweat, 17, of Martin Luther King Jr. H.S. in New York City The remaining 30 finalists received $1,000 each.